1. Field of the Invention
This application relates in general to the field of climate control systems, and in particular, to improved control systems and methods for operating cooling plants and distributed cooling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cooling systems that utilize various system components to remove heat from an unconditioned or partially conditioned air stream or process load are common in medium and large buildings and other facilities. Such cooling systems typically include absorption, centrifugal, rotary screw or scroll water chillers, direct expansion (DX) based cooling systems, air handling units (AHUs), other process cooling units, cooling towers, pumps and the like. If not properly controlled, such cooling systems can waste substantial amounts of energy. In addition, improper control of such cooling systems results in undesirable fluctuations in the temperature of conditioned offices and other spaces within a facility and/or thermal variations in process loads.